


One Day, The Rewritten Will Be Better, Not Just Different

by Zayrastriel



Series: Rewritten [3]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies RPF, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 06:51:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zayrastriel/pseuds/Zayrastriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lia’s pretty sure she didn’t anticipate her holiday to Germany going quite like this.  Meanwhile, Bree’s ready to kill Clint Barton, possessed or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Day, The Rewritten Will Be Better, Not Just Different

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know. Apologies to everyone in this.

**June 2020, Berlin, Germany**

Raine had to endure a month and a half of excited text messages from Lia (New Zealand, Italy, Egypt) before they finally meet up in Dresden, where Raine’s managed to get a precious four and a half weeks off to go touristing around France and Germany with her.  Ara joins them for France (a solid two weeks running around doing bizarre things, eating strange food, and too much exercise for Raine’s taste) and it’s good.

They deliberately don’t talk about their work, any of them.

Bree joins them in Berlin, briefly, dragging along a really awkward (but undeniably attractive, even to the unfortunately heterosexual Raine), tall and vaguely intimidating woman that Bree introduces as _Agent Maria Hill.  We’re going out_.

(Cue the catcalls and teasing that they can’t resist.  Maria takes it better than Raine would, which is to say she doesn’t laugh nervously and then run away.)

Poor Lia gets stuck with Maria one day when Raine, Bree and Ara go fac-ing.  Maria seems nice, but when they get back and Bree and Maria go out for dinner, Lia refuses to talk about it.

It’s fun.  It’s nice.

And then everything gets fucking _complicated_.

 

~

**DAY I**

**19 th June 2020, New York, United States of America**

Bree’s already sitting on a couch in the antechamber when Maria gets back into base, disgusting and sweaty and dispirited.  Silently, she reaches out her arms, an invitation for a hug despite the fact that Maria knows that dress is new, new and expensive because they went shopping together on one of Maria’s rare days off.

(That day ended with running away from a mutant robo-lizard-spider that Stark invented while sleepwalking, but it’s still up there on Maria’s list of the best days of her life.)

Maria doesn’t think she’s ever loved the journalist more.

To his credit, Director Fury is sensitive (or busy) enough to leave them alone for a good ten minutes, while Bree massages out the sore muscles and bandages her shins where debris cut through the tough cloth of her uniform.  Eventually, though, his patience seems to wear out; he approaches them, and though Bree quite obviously tries to ignore him, Maria can’t do the same.

“Director,” she says wearily.  “Agent Barton appears to have been compromised.”

“Along with some of my best men and Dr. Selvig.  Funnily enough I’m aware of that, Hill.”  Despite the words, it’s a token retort, half-hearted at best.  The Director looks calm, he always does, but Maria’s worked with him long enough by now to know just how weary he is. 

“Who was it?” Bree asks.  Fury glares at her on principle but it doesn’t last for long; his expression sags, and for a moment it looks like he’s about to lean against the wall but restrains himself at the last moment.

“We don’t know,” he admits grudgingly.  “Not human, that much was obvious.  It came through the Tesseract, probably from another world, but-“

“The Tesseract.”  Bree’s hands drop from Maria’s skin and she barely manages to halt the whimper of protest at the loss of contact, of the soothing motion against her sore muscles.  She’s about to say something – screw Fury, she’s just gone up against some of her best friends and an empowered alien – when Bree rushes to her feet.

“Last year.  New Mexico.  One of those ones you _asked_ me to cover up,” 

Maria remembers that; the first thing they’d really asked her to completely hide from the public, the first time Bree ever really got angry at her.  They didn’t talk for weeks, till Stark did something stupid (again) and forced them to work together.  After a certain point, it was easier to talk than to pretend that the other didn’t exist.

“Where we found the Tesseract,” Maria says slowly.  “I remember, but-“

 _Oh_.

“Was it Thor?” Bree asks.

Fury shakes his head.  “Unless he’s had some serious plastic surgery and a radical attitude adjustment, no.  Skinny guy, dark hair, green eyes- _fuck_.”

 “ _Loki_ ,” they say in unison.

After rubbing his forehead, Fury leans against the wall.  “We can’t do this alone.”  Maria knows what that means without having to ask.  “Hill, get Barton to call in Romanoff.  We need everyone.”

Wearily, Maria pushes herself to her feet, exhausted but obedient.  Barely restrains herself from kissing Bree the way she wants to, instead pressing a brief kiss to her cheek.  Bree smiles up at her just before she covers her mouth to disguise a yawn.  Maria smiles back, feeling slightly guilty when she realises that it must be just after midnight, and that Bree only got back into the country two days ago.  “Go to sleep when you get home,” she murmurs.

“Yeah, I wi-“

“I’m afraid that won’t be happening anytime soon, Lao.”

They both turn to look at Fury, who casts them a tight-lipped smile.  “Like I said.  We need _everyone_.”

 

~

 

**DAY II**

**20 th June 2020, Calcutta, India**

Bruce has never liked Agent Romanoff.  She’s too much like him – always polite, even when the vicious anger is stirring within him like a maelstrom – and too little, in the ease with which she takes to violence.

The rational part of him reminds him that it’s not her fault; that Soviet Russia took a girl and made her into a machine.  America’s made her into a woman, perhaps, but one with all the most potent memories of how to be a good tool,

“What if I say no?” Bruce asks, though he already knows his answer ( _no, never_.)

From the door, there’s a groan of exhaustion.  “Please don’t say no,” a vaguely familiar voice moans.  “I just want to go to _sleep_.”

Bruce frowns.  That voice…

“Brianna?  Why are you-“

“Fury says that I’m not allowed to go home and sleep unless you say yes.”  She steps forwards, tries a bright grin that falls flat, particularly when she’s close enough that he can see the rings of sleep-deprivation.  “So, um, can you _please_ say yes?”

Bruce caves rather quickly after that, if only because there’s no way he could say no and avoid feeling like an absolute douche.

 

**20 th June 2020, Brooklyn, United States of America**

“ _-And yeah so basically, Germany’s awesome_.”

Steve smiles back awkwardly at where he thinks the small camera (webcam?) is.  “That’s…good,” he says, hesitantly but sincerely.

“ _Mmhmm…So…how’s it going?  Any exciting secret projects going on?_ ” Lia drawls, and Steve isn’t particularly astute but even he knows what she’s doing.

“Director Fury talked to you,” he realises, tries not to feel vaguely hurt at the idea that this might be the only reason she’s…Skyping?...him-

“ _Oi!_ ” Lia says loudly, cutting through the self-pity.  “ _We arranged this Skype date ages ago, remember?  Relax_.”

Though Steve feels slightly embarrassed that he was obvious enough for her to notice, he does relax.  And then he thinks about what she asked and tenses up again.  Steve had told Director Fury that he needed time to think about it; not because he doesn’t want to do it.  He does, because he misses the action, misses the rules.  He wasn’t a soldier for long, but long enough to know it’s what he wants to do.

(Wanted to do, during the Second Great War; not here when war isn’t as straightforward as good and evil.)

“I don’t know whether to do it,” Steve confesses.  “It’s…not the same as it used to be.”

He sees one shoulder move in what he assumes is a shrug (he can’t see the other on the screen.) 

“ _It’s been half a century or something,_ ” she says casually, even though Steve knows she knows exactly how many years (seventy eight) it’s been.  “ _Stuff changes.  You’ll be fine_.”

As far as sympathy goes, it’s nowhere near the most eloquent expression of it he’s ever heard.

But-

“You can tell the Director I’m saying yes.  How’s Berlin?”

 

**20 th June 2020, Stark Tower, New York City, United States of America**

“Do you even _work_ for SHIELD?”  Tony asks, a mixture of annoyed and genuinely curious.  “What do you do, brainwash people via crappy television?”

Ara rolls her eyes and flops onto the couch without even asking for permission.  Granted, he probably would have said no and she would have ignored him, but she could have at least pretended to be polite.  “Says the person who owns HD copies of everything I’ve written.  Just take the light-darned job so I can go back to writing the next season of _The Drowning_ without having to worry about Fury calling me up and being obscurely threatening.”

“But-“

“ _Or_ ,” she says over the top of him, “when I write the script for your official biopic – and I will, Stark – then I _swear_ I’ll cast Robert Downey-.”

“ _Give me the papers._ ”

“Robert Downey Jr?  I’d rather die” he mutters under his breath as Ara leaves, oozing smugness, before sighing and settling down to read.

 

~

**DAY IV**

**4:00 pm, 22 nd June 2020, Stuttgart, Germany**

“Are you sure it’s alright for me to come to this thing?” Raine asks, even as she continues brushing foundation in light strokes onto her face.

Lia’s about to shrug and then reconsiders at the last minute when she remembers that she’s holding an eyeliner pencil all of about a centimetre from her eye.  “I’m not even sure if it’s alright for _me_ to go, and I’m the one who got the invite.”  She doesn’t even want to go, not really, especially when she won’t understand half of what’s going on because of the German (totally part of the reason she’s dragging Raine along.)

“…So why are we going?”

Because S.H.I.E.L.D sucks like shit.  “I’m like the official representative of SHIELD blah, blah, need to promote the company image, _yeah_.  Also nice food, hot guys, and you totally need an excuse to wear makeup.”

Raine snorts.  “Yeah, right.”

**11:00 am, 22 nd June 2020, New York City, United States of America (5:00 pm Stuttgart time)**

Nick ain’t no idiot.

Which is why he’s thinking some sort of brain-adjustment parasite came through from Asgard with Loki and infected him with enough raw stupid for him to tell Lao that Guan’s going to be in the same city as Loki this evening.

“Bree, please calm down,” Maria says calmly but with a hint of desperation, and for all of about a second Nick feels vaguely sorry for her.

Of course, it’s her fault for getting involved with another S.H.I.E.L.D employee, so he figures she should be the one to take the responsibility for dealing with it.  “ _No_ ,” Lao snarls.  “You can’t _do_ this.”

“She’ll be fine,” Nick’s agent tries pleadingly.  “We’ve got a plan, it’s going to be fine.”

The journalist just looks at her for a long moment, till even Fury’s squirming (inwardly) from the fucking _awkwardness_ of the whole thing. 

He pretends he doesn’t hear the slight sound of distress Maria makes when her girlfriend storms out of the room, throwing a glare in Nick’s direction.

 

**9:00 pm, 22 nd June 2020, Stuttgart, Germany**

They run out onto the street clutching at each other’s hands; something which Raine’ll probably later reflect upon as being hilariously awkwardly romantic but something she doesn’t even think about questioning at the moment.

She’s _scared_ , like, _really_ scared; wonders for a moment if this is what Lia and Bree have to deal with, whether the job perks are really worth it.

“Kneel before me.”

They’re not standing close enough (thank God) to the weirdo alien guy that he’ll notice them unless they do anything stupidly obvious, but they’re close enough that Raine, filled with a painfully nerve-wracking cocktail of adrenaline and panic, finds herself examining his features, cataloguing them for later.

(If there is a later – _wow not a productive thought, purge thyself now_!) 

Tall, pale.  Dark hair, that’s covered by a helmet that’s probably meant to be intimidating but instead just comes off as kind of stupid.

“I said, _kneel_!”

Fucking son of a bitch, whoever or whatever he is.  Nevertheless, Raine quashes the instinctive urge she always has when she’s ordered around to punch the person doing the ordering, mostly because this guy actually looks genuinely dangerous and there’s a reason she hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon and joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D like half her friends (i.e. two out of four people) have done.

So Raine grabs Lia’s hand tighter, pulls her down, and thinks deep thoughts about the periodic table while ~~horny~~ horned guy rambles, till-

“Dude, you should seriously just go on Tumblr.”

 _Fuck_.

 

**New York City, United States of America (same time)**

“ _Dude, you should seriously just go on Tumblr_.  _And like, I don’t know, post angsty gifsets of you blowing up rocks or something.  You wouldn’t actually need to order anyone to kneel-_ ”

“Oh my God, he’s going to kill her,” Bree moans, not sure if she’s more horrified or impressed.  Looking at the expression of disbelieving blankness on Raine’s face, she’s pretty sure it’s about ten times worse actually being there.

Beside her, Maria leans forwards and presses a button.  “Discard our plans, get down there _now_ ,” she orders.

 _This is your fault_ , Bree thinks about saying, but even though she’s watching her friend get herself killed, she’s not actually feeling angsty enough to say that.

Mostly because Lia is now informing an expressionless but wide-eyed demigod about how he could totally get an army of fangirls and take over everywhere exciting, like Disneyland.

 

**Stark Tower, New York City, United States of America (same time)**

Ara leans forwards slightly towards the screen, eyes narrowed.

Then she sits back, reaches for her cocktail, and downs it in one gulp.

Around the sensation of four standards entering her system, she calls out, “JARVIS, do you think there’s any chance of rerouting Lia’s life insurance payout to me?”

“ _I sincerely doubt it, Miss Ara_.”

“Damn.” She shrugs.  “Worth a shot.”  And then she pushes herself to her feet, heads towards Pepper’s office with deliberate calmness because she was only mildly tipsy about five minutes ago but now she’s heading towards _almost-drunk_.  “In that case, would you tell Stark that if someone doesn’t do something _now_ , I’m going to personally ensure that his biopic, starring, Robert Downey Jr, will get him death threats for inspiring the worst film in existence, for the _rest of his life_?”

“ _I’m sure Mr Stark is doing his best already, but will appreciate the extra incentive_.”

 _Huh_.  _Didn’t know computers get snippy_.

“Also, is there any chance you could shut down Tumblr?  For, like, ever?”

“ _That I_ can _do_.”

 

**Stuttgart, Germany (same time)**

The only reason Loki hasn’t yet struck the idiotic human girl down is that he has _no idea what she is talking about_.  He understands the words individually, each by itself (he speaks Asgardian, after all), and though he’s mildly surprised that they’re English rather than German, he can put together the words into coherent sentences.

The sentences come together to leave Loki staring flatly at her, along with everyone still kneeling on the ground as she keeps _talking_.

“You-“ he tries to interject when she takes a breath.

But she keeps talking over the top of him, cuts straight through him – “and lore says you’ve got this whole traumatic past thing going on, Tumblr peeps love that” – and Loki is left to wonder what Tumblr is, and how soon she’ll stop talking about it long enough for him to kill her.

 

**Ten metres away**

Okay, so Lia’s mouth keeps going, even though she’s pretty sure her brain is sending at least a million freaked-out signals to every other part of her body.  Her hand, gripped tightly between Raine’s fingers, is sweaty and disgusting and she feels like she’s suffering from a fever and hypothermia at the same time.

“-Though I suppose there would be the whole downside of people writing RPF porn about you,” her mouth muses cheerfully while her mind screams out in horror.

Beside her, still kneeling, Raine groans.  “ _Lia_ …” Lia hears her friend hiss.   _I know_! her mind screams, just as she starts talking about NSFW fan-art.

That’s around the point when Loki (she’s assuming, anyway) finally seems to have enough – she can’t blame him, really – and lifts his spear thing, just in time for Steve to block the probably-deadly magic and save the day.


End file.
